A Good Catch and Other Sundry Things
by spaciireth
Summary: Four mostly unrelated Castle/Beckett one-shots written for the LJ fanfic bakeoff prompt, "Catch"
1. A Good Catch

For years, Martha Rogers had been wishing her son would find a nice girl and settle down. Her maternal instinct (or something) had told her that neither of his first two marriages were going to last. Though she loved Alexis dearly, she was quite of the opinion that her granddaughter was the only good thing to come of Richard's short-lived union with Meredith, and his second marriage had been even shorter.

When Martha heard about Detective Kate Beckett, her first thoughts were that her son's new muse sounded like a good catch. Here was a woman who had her head screwed on right. She was intelligent and headstrong, had direction, and wasn't a slave to the mall. And despite not being ideal trophy-wife material, she was all his son seemed to talk about these days.

When she _met_ Beckett, and saw the two of them together, she decided she had to make Richard see just how well-suited the police officer was. Oh, yes, she was a good catch. Possibly the best that Martha's son had snared in quite some time.


	2. Glances

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Castle_. Fairly sure that's obvious. **

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If you were to ask Richard Castle about the sideways glances he often slid towards Detective Kate Beckett when she wasn't looking, he'd probably outright deny them first. If you pressed on, he'd then tell you it was all part of being a writer. Writing requires observing, and as she was the inspiration for his main character, he had to observe her, make sure he got her right.

If, however, you were to ask him about the sideways glances he caught Detective Beckett sliding towards him when she _thought_ he wasn't looking, you'd receive that winning smile of his as he declares that she's _obviously _completely in love with him. He has that effect on women, you know.

If you were to ask Detective Kate Beckett about the sideways glances she often slid towards Richard Castle when he wasn't looking, she'd also deny them first. When pressed, she'd argue that _someone_ has to keep an eye on him, and when Alexis isn't around, the job falls to her. It doesn't take much for Castle to find some kind of mischief to cause.

If, however, you asked her about the sideways glances she caught Castle giving her when he _thought s_he wasn't looking, you'd notice the small twitch at the corners of her mouth as she tries to prevent herself from smiling, a reaction that doesn't quite match her voiced opinion that it's creepy and she wishes that he wouldn't.

As you walk away from your conversations with them, it's easy to tell that they're both well aware that they're each being caught out by the other every time, both completely aware of the other's feelings. But it's Castle and Beckett, so they're both steadfastly determined to not be the first to admit a single thing.


	3. A Secret Admirer?

**A/N: **This and the next part were intended to just be one 300 word ficlet for the challenge, but wouldn't fit, so instead became two. This one isn't quite to my liking, because I had to twist it a bit to make it relate to the "catch" prompt. Ah, well.

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It had been a long day and Kate Beckett was exhausted. She sighed upon realising that most of the things in her mail were bills of one sort or another but one envelope caught her attention. Her address was typed in a nondescript font and there was no return address.

She carried it up to her apartment before slitting the top of the envelope and pulling out the contents. Inside was a single piece of paper saying "Enjoy!" and a ticket to a performance of Mamma Mia in three days' time. Kate raised an eyebrow. Of all the shows this secret admirer (probably Castle) could have chosen, it had to be that.

She had reservations about the show itself, but she was curious enough about the sender of the ticket to consider going. She thought she could turn it into a game for herself – she would see if she could catch the sender out before they caught her and made her sit through two and a half hours of ABBA.

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"Why, Detective Beckett, frivolous musicals never struck me as your kind of thing." The Detective in question spun around to face Richard Castle, who was grinning widely at her.

"Did you send me this?" She waved her ticket in front of his face.

His grin momentarily faltered. "You mean... you didn't send me this one?" He held up an identical ticket for the seat next to hers. The look Beckett gave him confirmed that the answer should have been glaringly obvious.

"Then someone obviously wants us on a date." Castle's grin returned, and Kate rolled her eyes, inwardly cursing. She'd well and truly lost the game she'd set herself. If Castle hadn't sent the ticket, then whoever had, had caught her out completely.


	4. Set Up

"I'm going to kill whoever thought this would be funny." Beckett gritted her teeth.

"Oh, come on," Castle pouted, "am I that bad?" Beckett just gave him that look again.

He was about to give a witty reply, but stopped at the sight of a head of red hair amongst the crowd. "I think I know who you've got to kill," he said to Beckett, and taking her hand, quickly weaved his way through the crowd.

There was a small shriek as Alexis Castle tried to duck out of sight when she realised she'd been noticed, but it wouldn't have done any good, considering the person she ducked behind was her grandmother, who had up until then been talking to Lanie Parish. Surprised though he was, Castle found Kate's facial expression priceless as she tried to decide who to glare at.

"Looks like we got caught, girls," Lanie announced, smiling.

"What did you think you were doing?" Kate directed her question at Lanie. Martha and Alexis both had the same genes as Castle, but her best friend was in on this, too?

"Well,the three of us had tired of sexual tension you could cut with a knife, so we decided to do something about it." Kate turned her attention to Martha, who had announced this like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But why Mama Mia?" Castle asked. "Was there nothing else?"

Alexis explained, grinning, "Well, we only had the idea the other day. It was all we could get tickets for at short notice."

"And were they paid for with my credit card?" Castle asked. Alexis grinned sheepishly. "In that case," he continued, "I suggest no ABBA, and a late dinner. On me."


End file.
